I added dramatic to the list of things I’d already found out about Cade, and pulled his English textbook toward me. “Let’s start here.”
I flicked through the book and Cade showed me what they’d been learning this week, and then we got to work.
An hour flew by before we even knew it, and when we switched over to math, I was feeling good about this. Maybe this was what I was meant to do? There was some weird feeling rolling throughout me and euphoria spreading through me like wildfire the more we worked and the more he started to understand.
I’d never known what I was going to do at college or what I wanted to be after it. I didn’t have an end goal when it came to my education and where it would lead me. I’d always thought short term: get out of the house. But now I had a real option of what I could do after that. I’d been working toward a goal that wasn’t planted into place, but the more I sat opposite Cade and witnessed the smile on his face and light bulb moments as it all clicked into place for him, the more I realized this was what I wanted to do.
“Shit.” Cade pulled his ringing cell out of his pocket. “My mom’s been waiting for thirty minutes.”
I looked up at the clock, seeing that we’d gone over our allotted time, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. This was what I wanted to do, and the revelation meant more than anything else right now.
Cade packed his books away and grabbed his half-eaten cookie off the plate. “Same time next week?”
I stood. “You betcha.”
He pulled his lips up into that boyish smile again, waved, and walked out of the room as I stared at the open door in shock and wonder. They said everything happened for a reason. What if Cade came into my life to show me the direction my path was meant to take? Or maybe it was a coincidence?
Either way, I’d be finding out more at college tomorrow about how to become a teacher.
Chapter Seven
BRODY
I tapped the pads of my fingers on the steering wheel, matching the beat of the music that was on a low volume in the car. I didn’t think I’d been driving for too long, but an hour after I started following Ford, I was still waiting to see where he’d finally stop.
The more I observed him and the way he acted around Hut, the more I suspected he wasn’t who he said he was. A fraud always knew a fraud.
He finally pulled up in front of an apartment block, but his lights stayed on. Jordan was following my tail back at our setup in the run-down house, reeling off facts to me through the speaker of my cell when the door to the building swung open.
“Someone’s coming out,” I told Jordan. “See if you can tap into any of the cameras.”
“On it,” he replied, and I shuffled forward, idling far enough back so Ford couldn’t see me, but not too far as to where I couldn’t see who they were.
The darkness created a veil of security around us all, but once the person got closer to Ford’s SUV, I could tell it was a woman. “Woman,” I blurted out to Jordan. “Around five-five.” I narrowed my eyes. “Dark hair.”
She hopped into the passenger side of Ford’s truck, but they didn’t move for a second. Maybe this was a deal he was doing that I wasn’t aware of? But when he pulled out of the small lot, I knew it wasn’t. They wouldn’t do any kind of deal like this.
“Got the footage,” Jordan barked over the line. “Just putting her through facial recognition now.”
“Call me when you have a name,” I told him and ended the call.
I followed behind them, trying to keep my distance on the more or less empty roads. Ford was always aware of his surroundings and who could or couldn’t be on our tail. That was why he made such a good second-in-command, but I wasn’t sure Hut realized what was right under his nose. Ford was the kind of person who’d become so good that he could tip the scales in his favor and take over in the blink of an eye. Maybe that was his end game? To overthrow Hut and have it all for himself.
Ford slammed his brakes on outside a bar, and the driver’s door flung open. He stood in the middle of the road, his gaze focused intently on my windshield.
Shit.
There was no way he didn’t know he was being followed, and I could either act like I was just around this part of town or turn this in my favor.
“I know that’s you, Brody!” he shouted, his hands clenched at his sides as he stepped toward me, not giving a shit that he was walking in the middle of what would usually be a busy main road. “Did he send you?” He was ten feet away now, and my headlights illuminated his face. “Did he? Huh?”
I kept the engine running but opened my door and slowly pushed out of the car as to not spook him. It’d be easy for me to go along with what he was saying, but that wasn’t the tactic I liked to play. That was how inexperienced undercover agents got themselves into shit.
“How long did you know I was on your tail?”
Ford growled, his gaze flicking back to his car briefly. He didn’t want me to know about whoever was in there. “About thirty minutes in,” he said, widening his stance and crossing his arms over his chest.
In the harsh lighting, I could see the hardness of his features, but a hint of vulnerability was showcased in the way his body moved and his gaze that kept wandering back to the car.